Look, squirrel! discussion

As a first post, I figured it would be good to get an idea of book themes members are interested in. Here is a list, in no particular order, or ideas I have had, or heard:

-True Crime (Halloween maybe?)
-Biographies
-Romantic Fiction (February?)
-High School English class
-Suspense
-Classics

Hey Alex, here are some more ideas for you, starting with some obvious ones... then I get weird.

-Sci-Fi (Space, Dystopia, Time Travel, etc...)
-Comedy
-Satire (yes, that's Comedy too... but Political Satire or something?)
-Fairytales (original?)
-Children's Books (or Youth?)
-Self Help (weird idea I'm not personally keen on, but just throwing it out there.)
-Cookbook? (or food-related? Hangout + cooking?)

I am torn between doing a Fairy Tales month, or reliving High School literature month. Votes?

I think it would be an amusing blast to the past if we started things off with a high school literature month.

I'm cool with either, so why not High School Literature? Do you have a book or two in mind, Alex?

Well the ones I remember as being pretty common are books like Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, most Shakespeare plays, Animal Farm.

All classic stuff. We also did Lord of the Flies and To Kill A Mockingbird, which I think are other very common ones. There's plenty of interesting choices we can go with - did we want to go with a novel or a play?

For myself I did Shakespeare, Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chrysalids, Short Stories (which included an episode of MASH and a very abridged version of The Oddessy), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Brave New World. And I think the other one Mike mentioned next to Mockingbird.

Maybe one month let's pick a Shakespeare we DIDN'T read, try to grab one none of us have?

Commenting to get this ball rolling. When did we want to start, and with what? I think, of the options listed, my top 3 picks (ranked by preference) are:
1st: Animal Farm
2nd: Catch-22
3rd: Brave New World

(All 3 are available at the library here. I just moved, and will be getting my library card within the next few days)

I was going to start labour day weekend, since that is the beginning of school and I feel it matches the timing best. How about Brave New World and Taming of the Shrew for the two books. All Shakespeare is available online for free due to expired copyright laws. We ok with that?

Sounds good for me!

Me too, so how long do we have to read the books? When do you plan to discuss it?

I remember HATING Brave New World, so I wonder if I'll like it any better this time around. (Grade 12).

Going to pick up Brave New World from the library in an hour or so. On the subject of discussing it, I recently got a new job that may toss a wrench in that for me - it's Monday-Friday from 3PM-11:15PM.

For next month I was thinking of reading something of a darker nature, being the month of Halloween and all. Do people have a preference between horror/thriller (fiction) and true crime (non-fiction)? I have been looking at titles and the True Crime books seem to be more factual in nature, which may be a little harder to read, I am not sure.